Cell Phones

ZTE Blade Vantage Review of Pros And Cons

- Analysis by KJ David

ZTE's 2017 Blade Vantage, initially carried by Verizon Wireless, may not be a very flashy smartphone in terms of technical pros and cons, but when seen from an entry-level vantage point, its specs sound spot-on for the Android novice.

First things first: It passes our expectations of a low-end phone on the storage front, offering 16GB's worth of inbuilt memory and supporting up-to-256GB microSD cards , the latter being its biggest pro over a ton of other 50-dollar models (It was priced at only $49.99 when it came out). Moreover, its 2500mAh battery, despite having a middle-of-the-road capacity as of 2017, promises up to 23.4 hours (1404 minutes) of continuous talk time and a 15-day maximum standby period -- both outstripping the corresponding average values as of this review. The aforementioned figures are based on controlled tests, though, so taking them with a grain of salt won't hurt.

Under the hood, this Blade model relies on some budget-class components, including a quad-core Snapdragon 210 processor running at 1.1GHz and a 2GB RAM . 2GB of RAM should do the trick, especially given the large number of entry-level smartphones that still opt for 1GB-only capacities. It also delivers Cat 4 LTE (4G) connectivity , which is always welcome for a phone in this class.

The Vantage, ironically, has not much to see display-wise, since it touts a sub-standard (as of its release date) 5-inch 854 x 480 TFT screen , which sits on a pixel density of only 196ppi . That being said, its 2.5D glass screen cover is a nice effort, especially since not many other Androids in its price range come with such finish.

As for imaging, even though its 8-megapixel rear-facing main camera is a nice sight on an introductory smartphone with a meager FWVGA-480p display, the same cannot be said of its selfie camera, which suffers from a paltry 2-megapixel-only resolution . In comparison, a lot of its low-end contemporaries rock 5-megapixel shooters up front.

With its list of pros and cons being topped off by typical starter-class facets like VoLTE and HD voice support, the ZTE Blade Vantage makes for a decent alternative for those who have just made the jump to Android -- or a smartphone for that matter.